THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER!THE USA TODAY BESTSELLER!
The hardscrabble folks of Troublesome Creek have to scrap for everything—everything except books, that is. Thanks to Roosevelt’s Kentucky Pack Horse Library Project, Troublesome’s got its very own traveling librarian, Cussy Mary Carter.
Cussy’s not only a book woman, however, she’s also the last of her kind, her skin a shade of blue unlike … kind, her skin a shade of blue unlike most anyone else. Not everyone is keen on Cussy’s family or the Library Project, and a Blue is often blamed for any whiff of trouble. If Cussy wants to bring the joy of books to the hill folks, she’s going to have to confront prejudice as old as the Appalachias and suspicion as deep as the holler.
Inspired by the true blue-skinned people of Kentucky and the brave and dedicated Kentucky Pack Horse library service of the 1930s, The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek is a story of raw courage, fierce strength, and one woman’s belief that books can carry us anywhere—even back home.
Fans of historical fiction will fall in love with this bestselling novel’s:
more
This historical fiction book taught me about many things I did not know. It was also a well spun yarn – a real page turner.
The people in this book will stay with me long after I have finished. The poverty and discrimination that lived with these people just breaks my heart. It wasn’t that long ago that people worked for $28 a month and lived in barely habitable shelters, in fact look around, are we going back there?
The book was incredibly well written and the story of BookWoman was heart wrenching. It was hard to put down.
The Bookwoman of Troublesome Creek
Cussy Mary, “Bluet,” to the people around Troublesome Creek is a librarian in 1936 with the Pack Horse Librarian Project in Kentucky with the WPA. The narrative takes the reader up the mountains and down in the hollars of Appalachia. She’s dedicated to her job and her father, her only remaining family.
Her father believes she is the last of the blue-skinned people in Kentucky. The medical condition responsible for the tint of the skin, relegates Cussy and her father to the same treatment as other “colored people” in their vicinity. The author’s research of this historically accurate story is fascinating. Cussy becomes the focus of a doctor, seeking to learn more about the condition, however, it’s much like the medical studies which exploited Black people, like the Tuskegee Experiment.
The route of Cussy’s deliveries takes her far into the hills and she encounters the families and a small school with children dying of starvation and poverty. She becomes their only connection to the outside world, including medical treatment and nutrition.
The story is compelling, the descriptions are captivating and the characters are well-written. Cussy Mary’s experiences will take the reader through incidents of racism, misogyny, and ostracism. With her stubborn mule, Junia, a quirky character in the story, Cussy perseveres, and comes to a revelation that we all need to experience. I highly recommend this novel by Kim Michele Richardson.
Amazing storytelling. I couldn’t put this down.
Loved it.
All I can say is WOW! This book grabbed me from the beginning. It’s a wonderful, inspirational story detailing the lives and hardships of people who are considered different in 1930’s Kentucky. This book should be required reading for everyone to show how awful racism, predjudice, and hate really is and how it poisons communities.
Kim Richardson is the real deal! This is a writer who speaks with an authentic voice. She draws a vivid portrait of hard times in hard country.
I didn’t know the “ blue people’s” tale… so sad and yet inspiring. Especially In this day of racial unrest a story showing just how prejudice people can be against anything that appears, superficially, different!
Amazing read that gives so much information regarding the “blue” people and the women who delivered books by horseback. At the end the author also give more information regarding research and historical reference. The story and the characters are awesome.
I enjoyed this book because it was a mixture of fact and fiction. I learned about the effect books can and do have on people. The main character seemed like an old friend I wanted to stay in contact with after the book.
I like historical fiction. As I was reading I was fact checking and found it to be accurate. It is a great story, good characters a little romance and a nice feel good ending.
Historical fiction at its very best. Portraying medical mystery, love in many forms, racism, poverty, coal mining, hunger & disease. The hope that reading books will lift the spirit amid all these troubles.
Having served on the board of a mountain library, I am drawn to books like this that tell stories of women in the past without embellishment, but with honesty. Our book club read it and found it interesting after reading another book about the women on horseback or muleback who delivered books in the Kentucky mountains This one had the twist of the story of the Blue people..
My family is originally from Eastern Kentucky. Most of us still live in the state so I knew some details about the story going in. That didn’t prepare me for the wonderful tale this author spun. I absolutely loved every minute of this book.
Enjoyed learning about the librarians during this time. A part of history I was not aware of
I loved this book!
Absorbing read and unique characters. Learned a lot about the Book Women program but also about the Blue People of Kentucky. Lots of food for thought.
I love learning things. I learned about the pack-horse library system and the Blue People of Kentucky. Excellent writing.
Wow! This book was not at all what I expected. Historical and based on true stories of that area and time period. I think I cried through most of this book bath happy and sad tears. The rough life they have in Kentucky made for a tough but rewarding read.
THE BOOK WOMAN OF TROUBLESOME CREEK by Kim Michele Richardson is a historical book set in the 1930s about a blue-skinned woman in the hills of Kentucky,
Cussy Mary Carter is the last of the blues. Ostracized by most of the hill people, she becomes a pack horse librarian, and while many still scorn her, many more accept and embrace her as she travels by mule over a hundred miles a week to deliver their books to them. One her routes includes Lovett Mountain and Jackson Lovett.
Jackson immediately falls in love with Cussy and thinks her blue skin is beautiful and is distressed when a cure is found to make her skin white, but the side effects of the drug make her ill.
There are so many wonderful characters in Cussy’s route and so much desperate poverty, yet she brings them light and hope with the books. This is a very slow building romance, but sweet. You can’t help but root for Jackson and Cussy. There is a happily-ever-after, but it is hard earned and well worth the read.
As a side note, this is fiction, but much of the story is base on historical fact including the pack horse librarians and the blue people of Kentucky. Congenital methemoglobinema is due to an enzyme deficiency leading to higher than normal levels of methemoglobin in the blood. It makes the blood chocolate and turns the skin blue. Most with this disorder lived long lives.